A trip down memory lane

Tuesday

I had a legal flashback to the 1970s the other day while taking a day trip to Cleveland.

For years my sons have accused me of being stuck in the ’70s. Maybe it has something to do with my disco shirts and bell bottom blue jeans, but I doubt it.

Anyhow, the trip to the 1970s had a lot to do with hearing Jeff Kinzbach as the morning disc jockey on WONE, 97.5, out of Akron.

Yes indeed, that was the same disc jockey who teamed with Ed "Flash" Ferrenc many moons ago to make mornings fun in Cleveland when they helped make WMMS the nation’s No. 1 radio station.

I was amazed that all these years later, Kinzbach’s deep soothing voice was still on the air, for one, but that he was still relevant, driving the morning show at WONE.

It was enjoyable watching 40 years fly by in the blink of an eye, remembering some of the antics the Buzzard’s Morning Zoo crew used to do. Remember Mr. Leonard? This character used to call in every morning with a different excuse why he couldn’t come to work. Funny stuff.

Later in the day as I was making my way around town in Cleveland, I was flipping through the channels on the radio and what a treat it was to hear Cleveland rock and roll legend Michael Stanley on the air as the afternoon drive time DJ on 98.5, WNCX.

I saw the Michael Stanley Band perform at several different venues over the years, including Edgewater Park, the Cleveland Agora, the Palace Theater and the Coliseum, which like the Agora, is long gone.

Michael Stanley’s music was a regular staple on WMMS in the ‘70s and it was cool to hear him playing music and sharing thoughts and ideas about other artists.

In the mid-1980s, when I was still living and working in Cleveland at the Cleveland Indians Gift Shop in downtown, Michael Stanley hosted a local TV show called Cleveland PM. He often used our store as a backdrop for various promotions.

To make my trip down memory lane complete, while listening to Little Steven’s Underground Garage on XM radio, the afternoon disc jockey was none other than Kid Leo, another WMMS alum, who introduced Cleveland radio listeners to Bruce Springsteen, Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes and many other New Jersey-based musicians during his years on the air from 2 in the afternoon to 6 p.m. back in the good old days.

Kid Leo had that deep gravelly voice that was as slick as his hair.

In a few short hours of enjoying the radio, I had managed to relive years of rocking and rolling through my teenage and early adult life, and so many wonderful memories. All I needed now was to hear Matt the Cat (10-2), Denny Sanders (6-10), Betty Corbin (10- 2) or the BLF Bash (2-6), the other regulars from the WMMS lineup to make my day complete.

WMMS was the cutting edge in radio growing up in Cleveland in the 1960s and ‘70s, taking the baton from WIXY 1260 AM, which helped get that thing called Rock and Roll started in the ‘50s and ‘60s, all in Cleveland.